Weibo Scraper - Chinese Social Intelligence

Extract Chinese public opinion, trending topics, and real-time consumer sentiment from Weibo (微博) — China's dominant microblog with 580M+ monthly users producing the densest public-opinion signal in China. Built for AI training corpora, Chinese consumer equity research alt-data, brand monitoring agencies, and academic NLP teams. No login, no API key, no VPN. The only quality Weibo scraper on Apify.

How to scrape Weibo in 3 easy steps

1. Go to the Weibo Scraper page on Apify and click "Try for free"
2. Configure your input — choose a mode (hot_search, post_comments, search, or user_posts), enter your keywords or post IDs, and set the number of results
3. Click "Run", wait for the scraper to finish, then download your data in JSON, CSV, or Excel format

No coding required. No API key. Works with Apify's free plan.

🏢 Production pipeline running 1,000+ items per week?

I offer custom output schemas matched to your data warehouse, dedicated proxy infrastructure for sustained throughput, schema stability SLA (no breaking changes without 30-day notice), and volume pricing above 50K items/month.

DM me on Apify, open an Issue with subject "Enterprise inquiry", or email samimassis2002@gmail.com with subject "Weibo enterprise".

Part of the Chinese Digital Intelligence Suite

The only Apify developer specializing in Chinese-platform intelligence — built specifically for AI training data buyers, equity research analysts covering Chinese consumer stocks, and brand monitoring teams:

• 🆕 Chinese Brand Monitor — Cross-platform brand mention aggregator (Weibo + RedNote + Bilibili + Douban + Xueqiu in one normalized feed, sentiment-tagged, cross-platform deduped — $0.045/mention)
• Weibo Scraper — You are here (microblogging, hot search, real-time public opinion)
• RedNote (Xiaohongshu) Scraper — China's Instagram + Pinterest (lifestyle, consumer reviews)
• RedNote Shop Scraper — RedShop e-commerce (products, vendors, prices)
• Douban Scraper — Long-form reviews (movies/books/music), group discussions

Together, these cover the five pillars of Chinese consumer signal: microblog opinion, video sentiment, lifestyle reviews, e-commerce, and long-form opinion. Most analysts buy 2-4 of these for cross-platform coverage. Building a cross-platform brand monitoring pipeline? The Chinese Brand Monitor aggregator gives you all 5 platforms in one normalized output — saves 4-6 hours of engineering vs. orchestrating individual scrapers.

Who buys this scraper

Buyer profile	Use case	Typical spend
AI / LLM training data teams	Real-time Chinese microblog text for SFT corpora + current-events grounding	$200-1,500/mo
Hedge fund / equity research desks	Brand mention velocity, hot-search momentum as alt-data on Chinese consumer stocks (POP MART, BYD, Anta, Yum China, BeiGene)	$100-500/mo
Brand monitoring agencies	Real-time tracking of Western brand mentions, crisis detection on China's public square	$200-800/mo
Geopolitical / policy analysts	Monitor Chinese public discourse, narrative tracking, policy response signal	$150-600/mo
Academic NLP / sentiment researchers	Chinese microblog corpus, labeled sentiment data for classifier training	$50-200/mo
Journalists / investigative teams	Source Chinese public opinion data for reporting on consumer brands, viral events	$50-150/mo

What is Weibo?

Weibo (微博) is China's dominant microblogging platform — think Twitter meets Instagram. With 580M+ monthly active users, it's where Chinese public opinion forms, brands communicate, and news breaks. Government officials, celebrities, and brands all maintain active Weibo accounts. For data buyers, Weibo's hot search ranking is the closest thing China has to a real-time barometer of public attention — a leading indicator that precedes earnings-call surprises and brand events by 1-4 weeks.

Weibo API alternative

There is no official public Weibo API available for international developers. Weibo's developer API requires a Chinese business license, has severe rate limits, and returns limited data. This Weibo Scraper is the best Weibo API alternative in 2026 — it extracts trending topics, posts, comments, and user profiles without any official API access. No Chinese business registration needed.

Use Cases by buyer

Who	Why they use it
AI / LLM training data teams	Real-time Chinese-language microblog text for SFT, RLHF training, and current-events grounding for Chinese LLMs
Equity research / hedge funds	Hot-search velocity + brand mention spikes as alt-data leading indicator on Chinese consumer stocks (3-50× cheaper than Bloomberg Chinese consumer feeds)
Brand monitoring teams	Real-time tracking of brand mentions, viral content, and crisis detection on China's public square
Geopolitical / policy analysts	Monitor public discourse on policy, international topics, and narrative trends
PR & communications	Track brand mentions and sentiment shifts in real time
Competitive intelligence	Track Chinese competitor announcements, product launches, and audience reception
Influencer marketing	Find and evaluate Weibo KOLs by followers, engagement, verification status
Journalism	Access Chinese public opinion data for investigative reporting
Academic research	Pre-built Chinese microblog corpus with engagement metrics for NLP and sociology studies

Scrape Weibo with Python, JavaScript, or no code

You can use the Weibo Scraper directly from the Apify Console (no code), or integrate it into your own scripts with Python or JavaScript.

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_API_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("zhorex/weibo-scraper").call(run_input={
    "mode": "hot_search",
    "maxResults": 50
})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_API_TOKEN' });
const run = await client.actor('zhorex/weibo-scraper').call({
    mode: 'hot_search',
    maxResults: 50,
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => console.log(item));

Using the raw REST API (Postman / curl)

⚠️ The run endpoint is asynchronous — its response is the run object (IDs + status), NOT your scraped data. If you POST to /acts/.../runs you get back something like { "data": { "status": "READY", "defaultDatasetId": "…" } } with no results in it — that's expected, the run hasn't finished yet. The records land in the run's dataset, not in that response. (The containerUrl link is the live container; once a run finishes it just shows "run has already finished with status SUCCEEDED" — that means success, it is not where the data lives.)

Easiest — one call that waits for the run and returns the records directly:

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/zhorex~weibo-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"mode":"hot_search","maxResults":50}'

The response body is the JSON array of records — no second call needed.

Or async — start the run, then fetch the dataset once it finishes:

# 1) start the run — note the "defaultDatasetId" in the response
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/zhorex~weibo-scraper/runs?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"mode":"hot_search","maxResults":50}'

# 2) when the run status is SUCCEEDED, fetch the records from its dataset
curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/DEFAULT_DATASET_ID/items?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN"

💡 In the Apify Console you can also open any run and click the Output / Storage → Dataset tab to view and download the same data as JSON / CSV / Excel.

Features

Mode	What it does	Cookies needed?
Search Posts	Find posts by keyword — returns query-relevant results	No
Hot Search / Trending	Real-time trending topics with heat scores and categories	No
Post Comments	Comments + post detail with engagement metrics	No
User Posts	User profile + posts from specific accounts	For posts only

• No browser needed — Pure HTTP, runs in 256MB RAM
• No VPN needed — Globally accessible endpoints
• Automatic session — Visitor cookies obtained automatically
• Rate-limit handling — Exponential backoff on 418/429 errors

How to Use

1. Trending Topics (no cookies needed)

Get the current Weibo hot search — the real-time pulse of Chinese internet.

{
    "mode": "hot_search",
    "maxResults": 50
}

2. Post Comments (no cookies needed)

Extract comments from specific posts. Provide post IDs (mid) or detail URLs.

{
    "mode": "post_comments",
    "postIds": ["5285773987283226"],
    "maxComments": 50
}

3. Search Posts

Search by keyword in Chinese or English. Returns query-relevant results — no cookies needed.

{
    "mode": "search",
    "searchQuery": "人工智能",
    "maxResults": 50
}

4. User Posts

Get profile info (always works) + posts (requires cookies). Provide numeric user IDs or profile URLs.

{
    "mode": "user_posts",
    "userIds": ["1642634100"],
    "maxResults": 50,
    "cookieString": "SUB=your_sub_cookie_value"
}

How to Get Cookies (for User Posts)

User posts mode returns profiles without cookies. To also get a user's actual posts, provide a login cookie:

1. Open weibo.com in your browser and log in
2. Open DevTools (F12) → Application → Cookies → weibo.com
3. Copy the value of the SUB cookie
4. Paste it in the cookieString field as: SUB=your_value_here

The cookie typically lasts several days before expiring.

Output Examples

Trending Topic

{
    "rank": 1,
    "title": "人工智能最新突破",
    "category": "科技",
    "hotValue": 2847562,
    "labelName": "热",
    "isHot": true,
    "url": "https://s.weibo.com/weibo?q=...",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-04-10T12:00:00Z"
}

Post

{
    "postId": "5285773987283226",
    "text": "介绍一下我的老婆！@金莎",
    "createdAt": "Wed Apr 09 12:49:23 +0800 2026",
    "repostsCount": 493,
    "commentsCount": 4549,
    "attitudesCount": 97438,
    "authorName": "孙丞潇",
    "authorId": "7511222755",
    "authorFollowers": 0,
    "authorVerified": false,
    "images": ["https://wx1.sinaimg.cn/large/..."],
    "videoUrl": "",
    "isRepost": false,
    "postUrl": "https://weibo.com/7511222755/5285773987283226",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-04-10T12:00:00Z"
}

Comment

{
    "commentId": "5285813927600208",
    "text": "恭喜恭喜！神仙眷侣，一定要狠狠幸福哦~",
    "createdAt": "Thu Apr 09 12:51:31 +0800 2026",
    "likeCount": 1268,
    "authorName": "吃瓜罗伯特",
    "authorId": "6108685154",
    "postId": "5285773987283226",
    "postUrl": "https://weibo.com/detail/5285773987283226",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-04-10T12:00:00Z"
}

User Profile

{
    "userId": "1642634100",
    "screenName": "新浪科技",
    "description": "新浪科技是中国最有影响力的TMT产业资讯及数码产品服务平台",
    "followersCount": 23785876,
    "friendsCount": 3875,
    "statusesCount": 213546,
    "verified": true,
    "verifiedReason": "新浪网技术（中国）有限公司官方微博",
    "profileUrl": "https://weibo.com/u/1642634100",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-04-10T12:00:00Z"
}

Content is in Chinese

All content is returned in the original Simplified Chinese. Weibo is a Chinese-language platform — posts, comments, trending topics, and user bios are in Chinese.

If you need English translations, pipe the output through a translation API (Google Translate, DeepL, or Claude).

Technical Details

• No browser: pure HTTP — fast and lightweight, runs in 256MB RAM
• No authentication required: works against publicly accessible content only
• Built-in rate limiting: automatic retry with exponential backoff to handle peak-hour throttling
• Globally accessible: no VPN or proxy required
• Clean structured JSON output: ready for analysis or downstream pipelines

Pricing

$5 per 1,000 results (pay-per-event)

Each scraped item (post, comment, trending topic, or profile) counts as one result.

Typical costs (small-scale):

• Top 50 trending topics snapshot: ~$0.25
• 100 posts on a brand keyword: ~$0.50
• 200 comments on a viral post: ~$1.00
• User profile + 50 posts: ~$0.255

B2B / bulk-scale examples:

• AI training corpus seed (10,000 posts on a topic): ~$50
• Daily brand sentiment monitor (500 posts/day for a month): ~$75/month
• Equity research signal (10 tickers × 200 posts daily): ~$300/month
• Multi-source academic dataset (50,000 posts across 30 keywords): ~$250

Volume pricing available above 50K items/month (see Enterprise section above).

Platform compute costs (Apify usage) are charged separately.

Limitations

• User posts mode returns profile data without authentication. Full post history may be limited for some accounts
• Search, hot search, and post comments work fully without authentication
• Only public data is accessible — private/locked accounts are not available
• Weibo may rate-limit requests during peak hours — handled automatically with backoff
• Very old posts may not be available

FAQ

Is there a Weibo API?

There is no official public Weibo API available for international developers. Weibo's developer platform requires a Chinese business license and imposes strict rate limits. This Weibo Scraper is the best alternative — extract trending topics, posts, comments, and profiles without any official API access.

How much does it cost to scrape Weibo?

The Weibo Scraper costs $5 per 1,000 results (pay-per-event). Each scraped item (post, comment, trending topic, or profile) counts as one result. You can start with Apify's free plan, which includes $5 of monthly credits — enough for 1,000 data points.

Can I scrape Weibo in Python?

Yes. Install the Apify Python client (pip install apify-client), then use the ApifyClient to call the zhorex/weibo-scraper actor. See the Python code example above.

Is scraping Weibo legal?

This scraper only accesses publicly available data through Weibo's public web endpoints. It does not bypass authentication or access private/locked accounts. Always review your local laws and Weibo's terms of service before scraping.

What is the best Weibo scraper in 2026?

The Weibo Scraper by Zhorex is the only quality Weibo scraper on Apify in 2026. It supports 4 modes (hot search, post comments, search, and user posts), handles rate limits automatically, and runs without a browser or VPN.

Integrations & data export

The Weibo Scraper integrates with your existing workflow tools:

• Google Sheets — Send scraped Weibo data directly to a spreadsheet
• Zapier / Make / n8n — Automate workflows triggered by new Weibo data
• REST API — Call the actor programmatically and retrieve results via Apify's REST API
• Webhooks — Get notified when a scraping run finishes and process data in real time
• Data formats — Download results in JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or RSS

More scrapers by Zhorex

Chinese Digital Intelligence Suite

• 🆕 Chinese Brand Monitor — Cross-platform brand mention aggregator (Weibo + RedNote + Bilibili + Douban + Xueqiu, sentiment + dedup)
• RedNote (Xiaohongshu) Scraper — China's Instagram + Pinterest (lifestyle, consumer reviews)
• RedNote Shop Scraper — RedShop e-commerce (products, vendors, prices)
• Douban Scraper — Long-form reviews, ratings, group discussions (movies/books/music)
• Xueqiu Scraper — Chinese stock-discussion sentiment, cashtag indexing (SH/SZ/HK/US-listed Chinese)

Streaming & Video

• Twitch Streamer & Channel Analytics — Twitch profiles, live streams, clips, and VODs
• Kick.com Streamer & Channel Analytics — Kick.com profiles, live streams, clips, and categories
• YouTube Shorts Scraper Pro — YouTube Shorts videos, creators, trends
• Letterboxd Scraper — Western film reviews and ratings

Markets & Alt-Data

• TradingView Multi-Market Scraper — Stocks, crypto, forex, indices
• Hyperliquid Pro Scraper — DeFi top traders, vaults, perpetual markets
• Booking.com Reviews Scraper — Hotel reviews and ratings

B2B Reviews

• G2 Reviews Scraper — B2B software reviews and ratings
• Capterra Reviews Scraper — Software product reviews and ratings

Other Tools

• Perplexity AI Scraper — AI-powered search results
• Tech Stack Detector — Detect technologies used by websites
• Telegram Channel Scraper — Public Telegram channel messages
• Phone Number Validator — Validate and format phone numbers
• Sneaker Price Tracker — Track sneaker prices across platforms

Support

Having issues? Open an issue on the Actor page — typically fixed within 48 hours.

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Last updated: May 2026 · Actively maintained · Trusted by AI training data teams, equity research desks, brand monitoring agencies, and academic NLP researchers.